Archive for the ‘HMRC’ Category

Introduction

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has in recent years increased its focus on limited companies, as the government attempts to recover lost tax revenue and penalise or discourage companies from tax evasion.

Unfortunately, a business cannot eliminate the threat of a tax investigation and can be chosen at random for a routine check, but some may be targeted by HMRC for a number of different reasons. This can be a lengthy, expensive and often painful experience for the business and their accountant.

Introduction

The amount of tax contractors pay through their Personal Service Companies (PSCs) has been on the radar of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for some time. Intermediaries’ legislation and subsequent changes, most recently this April, are requiring contractors to make decisions about whether or not to continue trading through a limited company. In some cases clients are now being forced to move onto payroll without having time to plan an appropriate closure of their limited company, which may cause issues especially if the company still has a significant tax liability.

Bridgewood has been advising contractors and working alongside accountants in this area for some time, and in this article we discuss the implications of IR35 and explore what options contractors have, should their company need to cease trading.Read the rest of this entry »

Introduction

In March BHS entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), an insolvency procedure designed to ensure the long-term viability of a business through a re-structuring of its liabilities to creditors. However less than 5 weeks later the company has entered into Administration and its prospects look bleak, with over £1.3bn in debts including a pension deficit of £571million.

Such a high-profile case has no doubt caused some observers to question the benefit or validity of CVAs. However the BHS case is a very complex one and, for your more typical client, CVAs remain an important insolvency procedure, when used in the right circumstances. If a business has a viable future but is hampered by legacy debts, then a CVA is often the best way of ensuring that the company can continue to trade, through a formal restructuring of its unsecured debts.

So here is a basic guide to the CVA, which we hope you will find useful.

The start of the year is often a difficult time for companies as they struggle with erratic or low trading through the winter period. This can result in a VAT quarter or PAYE/NI contributions being missed, causing concern for business owners that are unsure of how to deal with HMRC.

We all know that Taxes should be paid when they fall due, however HMRC will usually agree a payment arrangement, known as Time to Pay (TTP) in order to clear any arrears. Such arrangements allow tax arrears to be collected in a cost effective way; normally over a period of 6-12 months but sometimes for longer.

Here are 5 top tips to help you and your clients achieve the best outcome with HMRC:

The introduction of Accelerated Payment Notices (APN’s) by the Finance Act 2014 has been amongst the most talked about measures introduced by the UK tax authority to clampdown on what it considers to be corporate tax avoidance.